Playing the fool or being the fool?

Playing the fool or being the fool?

It is one thing to get a qualification or a diploma because it grants you entry through some gate — perhaps corporate employment. It is quite another thing to actually believe that you are automatically smarter or learned by virtue of it. Understanding this is the...
Having difficult conversations

Having difficult conversations

Life is full of difficult conversations. We encounter so many of these that it is something worth improving on. In fact, this blog post was inspired by someone who asked what the “best way” to get better at having difficult conversations is. I am not sure that there...
Don’t focus on the “thing”

Don’t focus on the “thing”

Coaching is full of “what should I do?” decision problems. Perhaps choosing between jobs, whether to end a personal or professional relationship, or to embrace a fundamentally new life path. Whatever the specific thing in question, we tend to focus too much on “it” —...
The unhappy high achiever

The unhappy high achiever

The case of the unhappy high achiever is much more common than you might think. Where  individuals who have gained much career success of the conventional type — so called “high achievers” — feel deeply unfulfilled despite all their external achievements....
Problem with authority?

Problem with authority?

I sometimes work with people who come to me saying that they think they have a problem with authority. Some of these situations remind me so much of how I felt before I decided to take the leap to live the independent life. I see two classes of ‘problem’...
Those pivotal moments

Those pivotal moments

We sometimes face pivotal moments in life when it feels like we have reached a threshold.  A point of no return where you feel that something has to change. I experienced this in my own career some years ago, when I decided to to take the leap to focus on what really...